E-Tailer Offer on Onkyo System Meets With Soft Consumer Interest
The competitive world of CE retailing was on display Friday, we found, as Woot.com’s deal of the day on an Onkyo HT-S6500 home-theater-in-a-box system came in at $499. The price was $300 under the list price and $200 less than the $699 selling price posted at Amazon, Vann’s, J&R Music World and Onkyo’s website, we found. Just one person had purchased the deal as of 3 p.m. Eastern Friday afternoon, while 20 shared it on Facebook, five on Twitter, six on Pinterest, eight on Reddit and 29 visitors emailed the deal to friends, according to Woot.
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At competitor J&R’s website, consumers are given a phone number to call to find a better price than the one advertised on products it sells. We called to see if J&R could beat the Woot price on the HT-S6500 and after being put on hold for several minutes when we asked for a price match for the Onkyo system, a customer service rep told us he “couldn’t go that low” to meet Woot’s price. He could, however, sell the Onkyo system for $520 instead of $699, he said. The rep said the price would be good in-store or online but that we'd save having to pay New York City sales tax by buying online and having the product shipped. Shipping was free, he said. The shipping rate at Woot.com is a standard $5 for everything a consumer buys in a given day, according to the website.
J&R tells online shoppers on its pricing page that if they see a product at another authorized dealer for the same price or less -- and if J&R requires the item to be put in a cart because of manufacturer rules requiring retailers to display low prices “in a certain manner,” while “the other retailer does not” -- shoppers should email J&R with the relevant information. If lower pricing at the other retailer is confirmed, J&R will mail shoppers a $10 gift card toward their next purchase.
Woot encourages customers to contact the manufacturer regarding any product problems. We called Onkyo customer support to find out if the home theater system could be returned to Onkyo if there was a service problem -- per Woot’s website instructions to contact the manufacturer in such instances -- and we were told that Woot is an authorized Onkyo dealer and the product would be supported.
Additional authorized online Onkyo retailers include Newegg, TigerDirect, CompUSA, US Appliance, Best Buy, MD, Worldwide Stereo, Walmart, Audioholics, Brandsmart, Crutchfield, OneCall, Abt Electronics, Fry’s, Bose, Sears, P.C. Richard and Nebraska Furniture Mart. Accessories4less, authorized to sell refurbished Onkyo gear, was sold out of the HT-S6500 at $399 Friday. We tried testing Woot’s $499 for the HT-S6500 against consumer-friendly price-matching policies from Best Buy, Abt, Sears and Walmart, but none of those retailers carried that model.
The Onkyo website warns customers who buy an Onkyo product from an unauthorized Internet dealer their warranty will not be valid.